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Hot Mikvahs and Heart Hormones |
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Written by Arnie Gotfryd
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Thursday, 23 August 2007 |
With all the junk food, chain smoking, Type A behavior and zero exercise, why do Charedi (Chassidic) men have 1/8 the risk of heart disease? Dr. Josh Backon explains.
This email is reprinted here with permission of Dr. Backon.
Hi Reb Aryeh
Further to our correspondence:
In 1984, the head of the lipid unit at Hadassah Universty Hospital had a paper in the journal International Journal of Cardiology showing how Charedim in Jerusalem even though they eat junk food, chain smoke, have Type A behavior and do zero exercise ["shukling" in shul isn't included :-) ] have a relative risk of having coronary heart disease that is 1/8th that of Datiim or Chilonim. The author couldn't come up with a logical explanation.
 We in the cardiology unit happened to be doing some research on "head out water immersion" and it immediately dawned on me that the daily hot Mikva of Charedim may have a major protective role. [It's been known for 300 years that when you enter a body of warm/hot water you have a desire to urinate. In 1972, this was formalized as increased thoracic pressure acting on some unknown hormone that lowers the kidney hormone vasopressin (ADH). In 1980, the postulated hormone was found in the heart (ANF: atrial natriuretic factor).]
I then wrote three papers on this in the INTL J CARDIOLOGY (1984, 1985 and in 1986) dealing with this phenomenon. The effect is only in the chassidishe group (multiple daily mikva) and not in the Litvishe community who go to mikva once a year Erev Yom Kippur).
Incidentally, in October 2001, the missing link between ANF and inflammatory cytokines was found by a German immunologist Dr. Andrea Kiemer (who injected the hormone. Until I emailed her and then phoned her she was totally unaware of the endocrine and physiology literature on head out water immersion [see MEDLINE at: http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed for all these terms ] and the drastic elevation of ANF.
Since the hotter the water, the faster the effect [and I did measure the temperature in a dozen men's Mikvaot in Jerusalem in the mid 80's] and raising heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) allows the body to tolerate high heat, it's important to note that in November 2001 (CRITICAL CARE MEDICINE) it was found that the orange spice turmeric [with white pepper containing piperine] drastically elevates levels of HSP70. PEYRUSH RASHI: we have patients (diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, heart disease) do my standard protocol: 1 tbl turmeric + 1/3 tsp white pepper + 1 tsp ginger [thromboxane synthetase inhibitor] + olive oil (to increase gastric retention time and allow elimination also by the lymphatic route) + ketchup (to kill the taste) shmeared on a slice of cheese (conjugated linolenic acid) [you twist and pop in your mouth]. 90 minutes later you enter a very very hot Jacuzzi up to your neck for 20 minutes.
ANF is elevated simultaneously inhibiting the 3 inflammatory cytokines: inducible nitric oxide synthase, nuclear factor KappaB, and tumor necrosis factor alpha.
BTW Charedim make up 1/3 the Jewish population in Jerusalem. Statistically they should make up 1/4 the population at Hadassah Hospital. In 1986 we even correlated the patient population with demographic maps (charedi neighborhoods) and medical diagnoses (ICD #). Charedim (who do daily tevila) are drastically under-represented in a large number of patient categories (mediated by inflammatory cytokines) [e.g. glaucoma, cataract, etc.]
KOL TUV
Josh
Dr. Josh Backon
Hebrew University
Faculty of Medicine |
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 23 August 2007 )
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